


tall and stupidly attractive drummer boy

by thunderylee



Category: Hey! Say! JUMP
Genre: Canon Universe, M/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-31
Updated: 2013-12-31
Packaged: 2019-01-16 02:15:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,820
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12333432
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thunderylee/pseuds/thunderylee
Summary: Christmas isn’t the only thing that’s special to Keito.





	tall and stupidly attractive drummer boy

**Author's Note:**

> reposted from agck. written for je-holiday 2013.

The angel shines atop the tree as Keito steps back to admire his hard work. After an entire afternoon of fanning out bristles and untangling lights, his Christmas tree was finally ready. It’s nothing spectacular, barely 150cm tall with a scatter of ornaments and candy canes, but it’s his. To him, it’s not about what’s on the tree, but what it represents.

And what it represents is the holiday season, generosity and cookies and family, though it’s ironic to think about Christmas in terms of family since he barely has any. For years now it’s just been him and his dad, the elder Okamoto busy with work more often than not. Working for the same agency, Keito understands the demands of his time very well, but it’s still increasingly lonely to sit in front of a beautiful Christmas tree all by himself.

Usually Chinen spends Christmas Day with him, but this year he’d apologetically bowed out. He has a date; of course he does. In Japan, Christmas is for lovers and cake. Keito hadn’t spent very long in England, but it was long enough at such an impressionable age that he’d picked up their customs and returned with a brand new outlook of Christmas. Ever since his return, he’d put up a Christmas tree and sang carols and baked cookies every year just because it made him happy. Even alone.

At least work keeps him occupied, what with all the single promotions and his regular spot on Mousoulist. He’s not as busy as his other group members who are starring in dramas, but Keito’s only a little envious of them. He has university too, so it’s not like he’s bored. Homework gives him an excuse to sit in the living room with his laptop and appreciate his tree as he writes papers and reads texts, even if he has two weeks off classes for the holidays. He can use the free time to catch up on his studies, maybe even get ahead.

None of that changes how much it sucks to spend Christmas by himself. Even hanging out with Chinen was better than nothing, which is probably why Chinen had offered his company every year. That one is more intuitive than people give him credit for. He kept asking if Keito was going to be okay, and for good reason. Being alone just makes Keito remember how his mother had left him and his unrequited love that seems to grow stronger every day.

Keito was fourteen when he was thrown into a group with a bunch of boys he didn’t know, laden with expectations because of who his father was. That seems like a million years ago thinking back on it now, but he clearly remembers being befriended by someone who was probably the most popular junior up until that point. Then everyone was nice to him and supported him during his parents’ divorce. It didn’t matter that he couldn’t read enough kanji to go to a regular high school or that he fumbled when he spoke in his native language. Nakajima Yuto thought he was cool, so that’s what everyone else thought, too.

His father had told him it was just a phase. Especially in an agency such as this, doing what they do for a living, it’s easy to get confused. Keito believed that for four years until Yuto got his first girlfriend. She wasn’t anyone famous, some daughter of his mother’s friend who wasn’t even a JUMP fan and Keito hated her before he had even met her. Then he hated her more, because she was cute and small and Yuto looked at her like she was the world. Keito knew he was being irrational, because he wanted Yuto to look at him like that, but his father kept saying that he just missed his best friend. It happens all the time, the elder Okamoto had told him. What Keito needed to do is get a girl of his own to occupy his time.

So when Keito started university, he occupied his time with anyone who looked interested. Mostly girls, though there were also a few boys with whom he experimented. None of them gave him anything more than physical satisfaction, and he always felt awful afterwards. This was just last year, but it seems like forever ago. Sophomore Keito is much more reserved, shying away from attention at school and laughing off his playboy reputation like it’s attributed to his reckless youth.

Keito sighs as the blinking lights come back into focus and his face relaxes into a smile. It’s impossible to be sad with so much joy surrounding him. This is why he goes through all of the trouble of putting up a tree every year; this is what keeps his mood stabilized through the holidays. Otherwise he’d probably just sit here and cry because he was abandoned by the one woman he ever loved and unfortunate enough to fall for his best friend.

On Christmas Eve, Keito sits beside the tree with his guitar, strumming familiar Christmas carols and singing along when he remembers the words. If his dad were here, they’d sing together, a comfortable harmony that summarizes their relationship quite well. When Keito was younger, he used to go to his dad about everything, but lately he’s kept to himself. He still thinks Okamoto Kenichi is the smartest person in the universe and hopes that he’s even a fraction as cool as his old man is when he’s that age.

Keito curls up on the couch with a couple blankets and watches the lights on his tree blink in different colors until he drifts off. It’s almost like he’s waiting for Santa to come, but that’s absurd. Sometimes he feels like he’d missed out on something amazing by not being raised in a western culture, where children were taught the legend of Santa Claus and the religious meaning behind Christmas. Learning about it at an older age seemed to take the fun out of it.

When he wakes, it’s to an odd noise a few feet away. He should be more concerned than he is, because it’s a pleasant, rhythmic sound that is very calming. Besides, what burglars or murderers tap a drumline on someone’s table before attacking? Slowly Keito lifts his eyelids and stares, not believing the sight before him.

“Traditionally you leave out cookies, you know,” a familiar voice greets him without breaking the beat.

“What are you doing here?” Keito asks, his voice groggy from sleep. “Is this a dream?”

Yuto pauses and sits back on his heels, tilting his head curiously. “Do you often dream about me?”

“Sometimes,” Keito admits, because he’s certain this isn’t real. It can’t be. There’s no way the object of his affections is right here in front of him on Christmas morning. “It’s the closest I can get.”

“The closest you can get to what?” Yuto asks gently. His eyes are wide and hopeful, and Keito’s heart breaks a little more at how torturous this is. It hurts to see Yuto looking at him the way Keito’s always wanted him to, knowing it will only last until he wakes up.

“To you,” Keito hisses, almost venomously, because he’s mad at being teased by his mean subconscious. “I try to forget, wait for it to pass, but it never goes away. Thinking about being with someone I can’t have is the worst feeling ever.”

Yuto blinks and scoots closer until he’s kneeling in front of the couch. His face illuminates in different colors from the lights, but his eyes are still deep and brown as ever. Keito falls more in love just looking at him, even if it’s not real, even if it hurts. Maybe after he lets this dream play out, it’ll be the end of it. Closure or something.

“And why can’t you have me?” Yuto asks, voice even but eyes strong, and Keito’s heart twists even more.

“Would you like a list?” he snaps. “You like girls. We work together. You’re my best friend. You like girls.”

“I like girls as much as you like girls,” Yuto tells him. “But I also like you.”

Keito feels like he could cry, because it’s not real and he can’t fool himself into thinking it is. “What I wouldn’t give to hear you say that when I wake up.”

Now Yuto looks like he’s hiding a smile, and Keito frowns until he feels a warm hand on his face. “Then wake up.”

Lips press against his and it feels so real, the tingles flooding his entire body a million times more than anyone he’s kissed before. The fingers on his cheek are warm, sliding back to cradle his jaw and those lips start to move, kissing him so soulfully that his mind starts to fade away, what little of it he has left anyway.

“Merry Christmas,” Yuto breathes. “Do you still think this is a dream?”

Keito just nods, because he doesn’t want to pull away to speak, but then there’s a sharp pinch to his side. He nearly jumps off of the couch, heart pounding at how undeniably real this is, how Nakajima Yuto is right in front of him, kissing him.

“How about now?” Yuto asks, looking just as innocent as any time he’s gotten busted playing a prank, only Keito is confident that this isn’t a prank. Yuto isn’t that cruel, nor is he the type to kiss someone he doesn’t like. Which means—

“It’s real?” he questions, because he still doesn’t quite believe what is happening.

In response, Yuto kisses him again, this time leaning up to hover over Keito and sling an arm around his waist. The fingers that had just pinched him now stroke along his side, over his shirt, and Keito just wraps his arms around Yuto’s neck as he loses himself in the feeling. It’s real, Yuto is kissing him, Yuto returns his feelings; it’s all too good to be true, yet it is.

Keito kisses back like the world is going to end if he doesn’t, putting all of himself into every press of his lips and turn of his head. Yuto’s hand moves up to his neck and Keito shivers, suddenly cold despite the heat working properly now, and he can tell that Yuto notices from the way those lips curl up into a smile. Eventually they break apart, much to Keito’s displeasure, but then Yuto is laying his head on Keito’s chest and tracing the line of his collar with a single finger and everything is perfect again.

“How did you know?” Keito finally asks once the haze clears his mind, because that’s the only part that doesn’t make sense. Even if Yuto really does like Keito, which Keito is still inclined to question, there’s no way for him to know that Keito feels the same. Keito has never told a soul other than his father, and that’s not really something one would brag about at the office.

“I wish I could say that I knew all along, but I’m not that observant.” Yuto smiles sheepishly and Keito gives a short laugh. “Once Chinen mentioned it, though, I noticed how attentive you were toward me in comparison to the rest of the group, and—”

“Chinen?!” Keito exclaims, leaning up enough to upset Yuto’s head on his chest. “I never told him anything!”

“You didn’t have to,” Yuto says. “It’s Chinen.”

Keito sighs at how logical that is. “Did he even really have a date today?”

“Like he would have a date,” Yuto scoffs, and Keito reaches down to push a strand of hair out of his face. “Mmm, that feels nice.”

Keito does it properly, raking his fingers through Yuto’s hair, and he feels warm all over when Yuto curls up as much as he can with half of his body still on the floor and closes his eyes. “You can come up here if you want,” Keito says, speaking quietly like there is someone else here to hear him.

Those eyes flash back open, but now they’re devious. “Trying to get into my pants already?”

“No! I—” Keito starts, but he’s cut off by Yuto’s laughter as the taller man climbs up onto the couch and stretches out on top of him. Keito lifts the blankets to let him in, and somehow they fit perfectly despite the small space. One of Yuto’s long legs is flung over Keito’s, his chest lying halfway on Keito’s while his head fits neatly on Keito’s shoulder. Automatically Keito curls toward him, lured by Yuto’s warmth and strong arms that hold him tight.

“I was jealous that you always spent Christmas with Chinen,” Yuto says quietly, squeezing him possessively, shamelessly. “I know how much Christmas means to you, and I wanted to be a part of that. After sitting quietly for so long, I said something to Chinen earlier this month and he laughed in my face.”

“Sounds like him,” Keito mutters. His hand had found its way back into Yuto’s hair, threading through the dark strands that are getting longer. “You know we’re going to have to treat him to a meal now, right?”

“Small price to pay,” Yuto replies, arching into Keito’s touch. “Anyway, I was just going to show up under your tree for you to wake up to, you know, like a present? But that seemed really lame.”

“That is kind of lame,” Keito teases, “but cute.”

Yuto reaches for Keito’s other hand and laces their fingers together. “Sometimes I can be cute.”

“You’re cute all the time,” Keito blurts out, feeling dumb the instant the words leave his mouth, but Yuto just leans up to kiss him again. It’s so much different with the two of them lying like this, legs tangled and fingers entwined and bodies pressed closely together, Keito free arm wrapped firmly around Yuto’s back as their mouths move against each other.

“Do you believe it yet?” Yuto breathes, and Keito shakes his head. “What do I have to do to prove it to you?”

“Still be here when I wake up,” Keito answers, making himself as comfortable as he can with another person mostly on top of him. His fatigue catches up with him, reminding him that he didn’t sleep for very long; the sun isn’t even up yet.

“Should we move to your room?” Yuto asks. “What if your dad comes home?”

“Then maybe he’ll realize it’s not just a phase,” Keito mutters. “Six years is a long time to go through a phase, anyway.”

“Six years…” Yuto trails off, snuggling closer. “I wish you would have told me.”

“I was scared,” Keito admits. “I’m still scared, even more now. You are so important to me, Yuto. I don’t want to fuck this up. I’ve never had a real relationship before. Just meaningless flings.”

“Well, I’ve never been with a guy before, so we’re even,” Yuto says. “I’ll teach you if you teach me?”

The implication of those words strikes Keito immobile, at least until Yuto pokes him in the side.

“Relax, I didn’t mean right now,” Yuto teases, and Keito lets out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. “I’d like you to be awake for that, at least.”

Keito shoves him playfully, but Yuto retaliates with his mouth and everything around them seems to stop. This kiss is much deeper, much more intense, that all Keito can do is hold on like he’s going to lift right off of this couch and fall out of orbit. It’s an amazing feeling, one that he never wants to end as they kiss until Keito can’t fight his body anymore.

He pulls away so abruptly that Yuto chuckles, which is the last thing he hears until it’s light outside and Keito nearly suffocates on his first breath from the grown man weighing him down.

“Yuto,” he manages to say, his voice almost nonexistent as he lifts a finger to trace the angles of his friend’s—boyfriend’s—face. Yuto stirs, blinking open those dark eyes to look at him, and Keito smiles. “Good morning.”

“It’s creepy to watch someone while they sleep, you know,” Yuto says with a lazy smirk.

Keito snorts. “Says the one who films Yamada napping all the time.”

“Yeah, well, I’m not in love with him.” Yuto lifts his head to rub his nose along Keito’s jaw. “I’m in love with you.”

That warmth returns, Yuto’s words bringing with them an abundance of feelings that Keito doesn’t quite understand yet. He feels Yuto’s heartbeat against his chest, slow and strong, those arms squeezing him tight despite being the one in Keito’s embrace. His vision sharpens and tints in timed bursts of colors from the tree, which seems to shine even brighter now that he’s sharing it with someone he loves.

“I believe,” Keito whispers, and in the back of his head, a bell rings.


End file.
